My Art Books

I moved into a new apartment a couple weeks ago, and finally unpacked all of my art books. I thought I'd take a photo to show you some of the inspiration I have collected over the years.

A Few Photos

I've been on blogging timeout while I've been updating my website. I'm still working on a few bugs in Internet Explorer, but the site is viewable with other browsers. So, I can start blogging again. I finally got the rolls of black and white film that I took in Mongolia developed. I'll add a page on my site with some of the best photos, but for now, here are a few:


Me on a train to Mongolia


Mongolian sand dunes


A wall I was doodling on at the Happy Dragon Hostel in Beijing

Sketchbook Pages

I bought a brand new Canon G11 from Best Buy the other day. They normally go for $500, but my mother explained to the manager that it's listed online for $450, and that she didn't get to use her $50 birthday discount last month, and somehow, he agreed to sell it for $400. Throw in a few rewards coupons, and I walked out of there paying only $350! Sweetness.

So now that I have a digital camera again (I lost my last one in Mongolia), I took a few pictures of the pages from the sketchbook that I've been working on. I've been takin' it back to the ol' days when I used to sit there next to the CD player and duke it out with ink pens—no pencil!

Good Ol' USA

After a brief stay in Hong Kong, a couple nights in Seoul, and then a night in LA (ironically, my flight to LAX laid over in Beijing) to exchange some things from my storage unit, I arrived in Boston and surprised my sister who is in the States for a week from Paris with my 3 month-old niece, whom I met for the first time. My sleep patterns are all kinds of messed up. But, I am very glad to be back in the States.

I had the feeling when I arrived in Xi'an that I ought to head back, but I ultimately decided to trek on. The whole last week of my trip through China, I got stuck on a bunch of Chinese tour groups, which pushed my patience to the limit. The tour I joined to see these Buddhist grottoes at Dazu County near Chongqing, made a totally arbitrary stop afterwards at some knife store. The tourists were hearded into this room where they proceeded to stage a live infomercial on kitchen knives. I walked out as soon as I realized what was happening.

The "cruise" that I took down the Yangtze River, in reality was two nights on a squalid ship. Each night, I had to wipe the dead flies off my sheets. My recollections of that experience are mostly of the incessant commentary on the loudspeakers, destroying any semblance of serenity one might gather from the natural beauty of the gorges, and being hearded like cattle from various tourist attractions along the way.

The cruise concluded with a tour of the controversial Three Gorges Dam, during which I decided to end my trip when I got to Hong Kong. That night, when I put my bags through the x-ray machine at the train station at Yichang, my video camera got stolen along with my ipod. Aside from about $1500 worth of equipment, I lost the entire three months worth of HD footage that I was going to cut into a movie about my whole trip. That was the coup de grâce. At that point, it was clearly time for me to go home.

So now I am back home, home being anywhere in good ol' USA. Since I wasn't able to blog in China, I obviously have much to catch up on. I didn't see as much of China as I had originally planned, but I have learned much over the course of these past three months. I'm surprised that is has only been three months since I began this trip—it feels like a year. Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of photos now to supplement my written entries. But I do have many valuable experiences and thoughts that I hope to share now that I have returned.

Xi'an

It seems that though sometimes I am able to access Blogger while in China through a proxy site, not all of my posts register. The entry I made a few days ago doesn't seem to be showing. I will continue to try to update my blog with text when possible, but even accessing Blogger is not always possible.

I'm getting a bit tired of traveling now, and am eager to return home. Since I've been in Xi'an, I've debated whether or not to continue with my planned itinerary down the Yangzi River towards Hong Kong, or go straight to Shanghai and effectively cut my loop in half. I'm getting less and less tolerant of the pollution and the lack of etiquette here in China (eg people smoking on the train), as well as adverse lodging conditions in some of the hostels.

I decided to go on ahead with my original plan to go to Chongqing, the Yangzi River, and then towards Hong Kong/Macau. I am stuck in Xi'an one more day, as they didn't have beds for the night train to Chongqing tonight, and I didn't feel like sitting for 13 hours. Yesterday I saw the Terracotta Warriors and this morning I went to the Tomb of Emperor Jingdi. After three months on the road, each new historic site is seeming less and less impressive. My spirits are up, though, as rather than being homesick, I feel that I have gotten everything I sought out of this trip, and am now ready to return to the States fully charged to get on with the next phase of my life. I will leave for Chongqing tomorrow night. From Chongqing, I will take a half day hydrofoil to Yichang. I'm taking the express option, rather than a multiple day cruise as many travellers choose, as I'm trying to move faster now.

I've been reading Ghandi's autobiography, but found myself putting it aside, so I bought a copy of "Go Tell It On the Mountain" by James Baldwin, a book I've considered reading before, at a foreign language bookstore here. Then I found a copy of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" on my bed yesterday. Hopefully, these should help with the long train/boat rides. It's funny how I am longing for things that remind me of America. My first day in Xi'an, I got lunch at McDonald's, and then bought a tall vanilla latte from Starbucks, as I was so glad to see something familiar. It's ironic that traveling in Asia has given me a new appreciation for what we have in America, among the many new thoughts and shifts in perspectives that I have aquired along this journey. But this is a longer topic, so I will write more about it later. :)

Back from the Mongolian Steppe

I returned safely from my trip to the Mongolian countryside. For 7 nights I stayed in gers (nomadic Mongolian tent houses) with Simon and Jodie, a Scottish couple; a Polish guy named Konrad; a French lady named Mariette; and an Austrian man, Martin. Except for Martin, who was 45 years old, we were all around the same age. The smell of sheep and diesel fuel was always present. We all had an amazing time, though much of it was spent in an old Russian van on very bumpy terrain. There are no proper roads in the countryside, but rather paths that have been worn in the dirt by traversing automobiles. The beauty of Mongolia's steppe is a stark contrast to the dreariness of its urban areas. I find Ulan Bataar to be a quite depressing place. I've never been to Russia, but I imagine UB is very much like remote Russian cities. Yesterday I lost my camera, and I'm pretty bummed about that. I lost almost 4000 photos, so unfortunately, I won't be able to share any of them. I still have my 35mm camera and the rolls of film that I took, so barring any catastrophe, I should be able to share those once I return home. I'll probably just take the occasional 35mm photo for the remainder of my trip. I'm leaving tonight on a train back to China with 3 of my friends from the trip. I'm looking forward to returning to China.

Will Be Back...

I arrived in Ulanbataar, the capital of Mongolia this morning, after a week in Beijing. The train ride between Ulanbataar and Beijing takes about 30 hours. I've been unable to update my blog in China, due to the government's internet censorship. Unfortunately, as I'll be in China for the majority of the remainder of my trip, I might not be able to update my blog while I'm traveling. I'll be in Mongolia for a week or so, and then will then take the train back down to China. I look forward to sharing all that has happened as soon as possible. Stay tuned!